Note: I originally wrote this for Work.com, so pardon the “action/advice/recommendation” format if you’re reading this. When I realized that each “box” on Work.com requires that one enter no more than 1,000 characters, presumably to meet the needs of the “short attention span, no reading comprehension skills, busy as hell” type of folks out there, I had to scrap it as a Work.com article…I like to RAMBLE! Also, it’s written for the neophyte, so when you see things like “What’s a blog?”, don’t comment-lash me too much.

Quit Your Job and Start Out on Your Own – But be Prepared to Work Hard

Giving up a sure thing for the promise of freedom and potential riches through self-employment can be scary. But with the proper preparation, you can make it pay off big.

Have a Plan Before You Quit Your Job

Sounds simple, right? Despite that, there are many who start their own businesses who fail to properly plan for the road ahead of them. This is, at least to some extent, why so many small businesses fail. The first thing that anyone starting their own business must determine is how much money they will require - not only to start the business itself, but to support themselves in the startup phase, during which time it is likely that little to no revenue will be produced.

Create a personal budget so that you’ll know how much money you’ll need each month to cover your own living expenses. After that, begin writing your business plan so you’ll know how much money the business will require each month. Personally, I think that a good rule of thumb is to assume that you’ll produce no revenue for the first 12 months of your venture. I’m not suggesting that you won’t, but I like to plan with conservative estimates. If your planning indicates that have the financial resources to quit your job and start a business that won’t produce revenue for 12 months, you should be in good shape.

With regards to the business plan, there are several key planning components to consider. Your business plan need not be overly formal unless you’re presenting it to investors and, for the sake of this article, I’m assuming either a bank loan or owner financing of the startup. When writing the business plan, you should include:

• A thorough description of what the business will do, i.e. – provide a service, sell a product or implement a content + advertising revenue model.

• A specific plan regarding how the product, service or content will be provided. For example, if you’re selling a product, what is the source of the product? From whom are you buying it, how much will it cost, and what will be your markup? If you’re providing a service, are you the direct service provider, or will you have employees to provide services? If you are implementing the classic Internet content + advertising model, who will create the content and who will be your advertisers?

• A firm grasp of how much money is required to start the business and run it on a monthly basis (fixed and variable costs).

• A concrete list of support professionals, including an attorney, accountant, web designer, etc. Many Internet entrepreneurs have at least one specific skill set under their belts (many can design web sites, for instance). Whatever your core competence, focus on that and get others to provide the services that you can’t provide yourself.

• Realistic revenue projections, going forward three years, with a focus on the revenue point that will allow you self-sufficiency as a self-employed person.

• The type of legal entity your business will be, i.e. – corporation, limited liability company, sole proprietorship, etc.

Recommendations

First, figure out if you really want to be your own boss, or if you’re merely sick of your current job and need to start a new job search. Once you’ve decided that you are going to go out on your own, begin with a business plan. Though a formal business plan is not necessary unless being presented to investors or banks, Business Plan Pro is a software title that I’ve owned and used in the past. I generally prefer less formality than the software is capable of producing, but if you’re going to a bank for a loan, they will almost always ask for a business plan and this software is informative and fairly easy to use.

If you have an accountant or attorney (you should, remember?), either may be able to help you with the incorporation process. You’ll need to choose the type of business yours will be. In conducting some research, I came upon a web site that wasn’t around when I started my first “S” Corporation. Corporate.com has a “wizard” that shows you what business owners in your state and with a similar business model have chosen to do. This is interesting, of course, but you should decide for yourself what type of entity you’ll form. Personally, I like the “S” Corp., as does my accountant, but I’ve also formed several LLCs, especially for real estate holdings, and they are also easy to implement. As a note, LLCs are also a good option if you are the sole business owner.

Finally, if you’ll be employing the content + advertising model, there are several providers of advertising “management” that will allow you to secure paid advertising for your site without having to solicit advertisers, set up tracking codes, create ad rotation scripts and all of the other things that go along with proprietary advertising implementation. Google Adsense is the most popular, but others that have gained some notice are Quigo, the Yahoo! Publisher Network, Adster and AdBrite, just to name a few.

Leverage Your Obsessive Personality

If you don’t have an obsessive personality, get one. Quickly. If you must, develop and utilize this obsessive nature only when working on your business. But don’t think for a moment that your next vacation will be like your last. Your work will become your primary focus and is ever-present. You’ll think about your work at night when you’re trying to sleep, in the morning when you’re brushing your teeth, just about every hour in between and, yes, even on vacation. If this concept bothers you, stay at your current job. I repeat, DO NOT QUIT YOUR JOB – you need it.

When you work for someone else, the things that go wrong with the business are someone else’s problems. When you work for yourself, there is no one who will feel the sting of failures and problems but you. With self-employment comes great rewards, but oh, how tough the bad times can be. “Thick skin” is not a strong enough euphemism for what is required to start and run your own business. Oh, and by the way, you’re not going to have your “idiot boss” to blame when something goes wrong now either. YOU will be the idiot boss. Sorry, that’s just how it is – and wait until you hire employees!

Recommendations

Yes, the process of starting and running your own business is stressful. There are many ways to beat the stress, but you’ll ultimately have to figure out which is best for you. I like the paradoxical combination of single malt scotch and running on my treadmill (but not at the same time).

Communicate Effectively

Nothing will turn off a potential customer or client more quickly than poor communication. Failure to answer the phone, return calls and respond to e-mails will almost certainly doom your fledgling venture. Take the calls that you know are solicitations as well – perhaps you’ll learn something. True story: I once tried to sell SEO services to a telemarketer who had called me to sell my company a business listing in the yellow pages. She got her supervisor on the phone, who was a bit miffed because I was wasting his time. It was GREAT.

In addition to being manic about returning calls and responding to e-mails, your web site says quite a bit about your company and the copy contained therein should be flawless. Your blog (see below) can be “loose” and not so well-written and edited, as long as you have something interesting to say. On your main web site, however, show readers or potential clients that you take your business, your site and their patronage very seriously. Do the same with any printed promotion material you produce because people will judge you on the quality of those materials as well as their content.

Recommendations

If you’re a good writer, take your time and write perfect copy for your web site. If writing is not your forte, hire a company to do your web copywriting or to edit what you’ve written. If you can design web sites, as many Internet entrepreneurs can, design your own site. If you feel that your time is better spent elsewhere, hire someone to do it. Finally, there is no need to spend a fortune on business cards, brochures, etc., but make sure that you have these things if your business warrants it (but not until after your web site is finished – you are, after all, starting an online business).

You’re Already Online, Now Start a Blog

From the title of this article, I’m assuming that you, the reader, are interested in starting an online business. That means you’ve got a web site already (right?), but do you have a blog? What’s a blog? WordPress, provider of both a backend blogging application coded in PHP/MySQL and an online “managed service” to create blogs offers this definition:

“Blog” is an abbreviated version of “weblog,” which is a term used to describe web sites that maintain an ongoing chronicle of information. A blog is a frequently updated, personal website featuring diary-type commentary and links to articles or other Web sites. Blogs range from the personal to the political, and can focus on one narrow subject or a whole range of subjects.

That definition tells us what a blog is, but I think what is more important is what a blog can do for you. As a business owner, you’ll generally have a web presence that is formal in nature. It will let visitors know what your company does, how to contact you, a list of products for sale or services provided, etc. A blog, on the other hand, presents the business owner with a more dynamic manner of communicating with site visitors and potential clients.

The tone of blogs tends to be fairly informal (kind of like this article) and also offers visitors to the site an opportunity to engage in direct communication with you. It’s much more interactive than the standard corporate web site, where visitors can typically read about your company, locate contact information and, if they’re lucky, use a form to get in touch with you. The blog, on the other hand, typically will have a “comments” section where visitors can respond to what you’ve written and to what other “commenters” have written.

From the perspective of the site owner, i.e. – you, the blog is a good way to talk about your product, service or content focus in a manner that is naturally appealing to Internet users and even search engines. It is a fairly well-known fact that search engines like Google and Yahoo! quickly find and index blogs and that other individuals and business owners with blogs will often link to your blog once they’ve discovered it and verified it as a good source of information. As such, blogs often create inroads to partnerships and site traffic that standard web sites cannot offer.

Recommendations

Wordpress is one of the top providers of blogging software on the Web and, best of all, it’s free. I’ve started several blogs with WordPress and, once I became familiar with the user-friendly interface, it was quite easy to use. Once you’ve started a blog, look for other blogs in the same industry or category as yours. Read them, comment on them, link to them…you’ll end up entering the “blogosphere” for your industry and get notice from potential partners and clients.

Network Like a Madman (or Woman)

Once you have established your business model and your web site (and hopefully your blog), one of the best ways to grow your business is to network, network, and then network some more. The Internet is a great place for networking and creating buzz about your new business, but it is important that you take the time to find the right areas to introduce yourself and your company. Simply having a nice web site and even a regularly updated blog is not enough. You need to find the groups of people that might be interested in learning about, reviewing, and possibly purchasing the products, services or content of your business.

For every industry and practically every niche imaginable, there are online forums, newsgroups, and blogs where people of similar professional and personal interests gather to share ideas, information, and opportunities. While forums, newsgroups, and blogs are all unique platforms for networking, the fundamentals of successfully networking within each realm are the same and we’ll discuss them all as “forums”.

Simple searches under terms like “your industry + forums” should get you started with at least a handful of potentially fruitful destinations. Take the time to get acquainted with the forums and the users that are participating and commenting there. It is important that you introduce yourself in a professional manner, being careful not to bombard the other users with your sales pitch or excited invitations to visit your great new web site or blog.

Instead, you should first establish some credibility within the forums by participating in discussions that are relevant to your business or industry and learning about some of the other business owners who are active in the forums. After you have established yourself as a knowledgeable professional, users will be much more open to learning about your business and other ideas you may have to offer.

There are also more direct online networking strategies, which include sites dedicated to professional and social networking. These sites allow users to create professional or social profiles that can be shared with other members of the network. Users can search for and contact members with similar interests or professions and invite them into their group of “friends”. There are many networking sites on the Internet and each offers slight variations of functionality and reach. Most networking sites allow for the creation of a comprehensive and detailed professional profile. It is important that your profile is detailed and focused on your industry, your business, and your professional skills. For a new business owner, the best approach is to stick to the professional networking sites and try to make contact with as many people as possible with interests or professions that are relevant to your business model. If that proves successful and your business model is applicable, a careful foray into the social networking sites may yield positive results as well.

And although your new business is an online venture, that doesn’t mean that you should overlook any opportunities to do some real-world networking. Sometimes there is just no substitute for face-to-face schmoozing, complete with name tags, bad hors d’oeuvres, and cheap liquor. You might be surprised what valuable contacts you can make through local business associations and chambers of commerce. Most of the members of these groups are also small business owners and membership dues are usually minimal. Even if you only attend a few functions per year, it is never a bad idea to introduce yourself and your business to new people, especially other business people. Many great partnerships have been built over stuffed mushrooms and warm chardonnay.

Recommendations

There are countless forums for almost any industry and professional niche imaginable. A quick search on Google should get you started with some relevant forums. When searching for blogs that focus on your industry or business, you can try Technorati or Google’s Blog Search. Make sure you visit the blogs you are targeting to make sure that they are still active and that the blog focus is relevant to your industry – not just the particular blog post that matched your search query.

One of the most popular and credible professional networking web sites is LinkedIn. Joining and creating a profile with LinkedIn is free and the initial set-up takes only a few minutes. However, the network is huge and growing everyday, so dedicating some time to mining this resource could yield both immediate and long-term results.

Some of the most popular newsgroups can be found at Google Groups and Yahoo! Groups. These resources are not as popular as they once were, but there is still value to be found here. There may be several groups that are relevant to your business, so make sure you take a thorough look at the groups.

If you’re unsure about your local chamber of commerce, you can search for every listed chamber here: http://www.uschamber.com/default. They should be able to help you locate any smaller business associations or groups that exist in your immediate area.

Tags: internet entrepreneur, quit your job, self employment, start a business, work.com

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